CALAMITY OF CHALLENGE

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Here's part of an interview I did with Chem Levitz over at the comics news site, Long Live Comics.

LLC: There is a certain horror element to your work. Can we assume that we’ll see zombies in future Calamity stories?

MA: No.

LLC: What kind of zombies, or undead, do you plan on using: the fast kind or the slow kind?

MA:

LLC: Do you tend to watch The Walking Dead when it airs or do you DVR it? Follow up question – Do you read the comic in single issues or wait for the trade?

MA:

LLC: What I like about the show and the comic is that anything can happen. Like, a walker can kill you, or you could get shot, or you could just die. Any of those three things could happen to anybody at any time.

MA:

LLC: What would you say is the best zombie kill in the either the book or the show? For me it would be when the zombie gets his head cut off or when that other zombie’s head explodes. I watch the show with some friends and we each do a shot whenever somebody yells at someone else.

Some days I prefer the TV series to the comic but other days I think the comic is better. It’s like you can do things in comics you can’t on a TV show, like if you want to stare at a panel for 5 minutes you can, and then maybe flip to the last page and see what happens there first. I mean, I guess you could pause the show or fast forward to the end…wow. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of doing that before. I think tonight I’ll put on subtitles and pause each scene.

Hmm. Maybe TV is better than comics. However, I was checking out the horror section of Netflix the other day as I made a list of zombie movies and I found this old film called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It was interesting because it’s about people trying to fight off zombies in this house. I shut it off after maybe 20 minutes and pulled out my laptop to start writing – what if NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was 42 hours long? Think about how many times people could yell at each other about the best methods for survival. My thought is to do a comic about a group of folks who are in an apartment building that is besieged by the undead and they have to get out and get more food and one person says they should drive and another one says they should walk. Then a kid falls on a pickaxe and dies and comes back as a zombie.

So, uh…what screenwriting software do you use to plot your stories?

MA:

LLC: Have you ever considered getting a guest artist to come in and do an issue? ‘Cuz I would love to see Jim Lee’s take on these guys. Please don’t take offense when I say this but I can only assume it would be a thrill for you to see a comics master render these stories because, quite honestly your stories aren’t so great and neither is your art. What I would love to see is maybe a Jason Aaron or a Brian K Vaughn write for you, or at least tighten up your story beats, and then get Jim Lee to draw it. I loves me some Jim Lee.

Have you contacted Jim Lee?

MA:

LLC: Great. Um…have you considered putting unicorns in your book, or maybe a shark that fights a bear…or Abe Lincoln.

I don’t know what you think of this idea but how about you do a story where Humpty Dumpty is a 1930’s gangster and he takes on homeless zombies during the depression?

MA:

LLC: That would make a great movie, but I can also see it as a comic. I would rather it be a TV show, but beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe that would be the name of the show: BEGGARS CAN BE CHEWERS, 'cuz they call zombies "chewers".

Have you thought about adapting any Stephen King stories? Maybe CREEPSHOW would work as a comic. You could get Berni Wrightson to do covers and Jim Lee to do interiors with Brian K Vaughn on story beats.

What if a zombie had a baby and the baby tunred out to be Hitler but he had antlers?

MA:

CBR: Well, thank you for your time and we’ll talk to you again when STEEV N. KINGZ OF MICE AND ZOMBIES hits theaters next year.